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4.
Seventeen Years Later
"De moon passed me hut many times since last you been here, Jack," said Tia Dalma with a blackened smile, setting a mug of mysterious liquid in front of her favorite pirate. "Of what service can I be to you?"
Jack wrapped his fingers around the mug, feeling the warmth through the clay. It felt soothing to his aging hands; more and more, they ached on cold mornings, as did his back, and a rib that hadn't healed exactly the way it should have. But for the silver streaks making their way into his pitch black dread locks and some lines at the corners of those dark eyes, one could hardly tell Jack stood on the greater side of fifty.
"I 'av an inquiry, of the dire sort."
"Aah." Tia Dalma sat gracefully down opposite of Jack, folding her smooth hands gracefully on the table before her. She, on the other hand, remained untouched by the hand of time. Jack wondered how she did it, but had no doubt she could defy such natural things as aging. "I sensed a bit of somtin' hanging heavy over that head of yours. Tell me, what ails Jack?"
"Not too long ago, I found myself pirating 'round the likes of Asian waters. Events led to this and that, ending in me being forced to spit a scoundrel like a fish fer tryin' to jump me and me mates in a Port Town. I won a ring he seemed a bit fond of in a game of cards, fair and square…" Tia Dalma shot him a knowing look, and he revised his tale, "Well, almost fair and square. Anyways, I killed the bastard, unwitting to meself he was the son of a particularly nasty sea witch."
This part caught Tia's attention; she leaned forward intently. "And how did you meet de sea witch?"
"She came to me, in a dream. That's why I'm here, seein' as maybe the whole thing was just my dreamin' noggin and not a stitch of reality at all, but it felt so real I can't be for certain like¾"
"And what did she say to you?" Tia interrupted his side tirade, knowing it could go on infinitely if she did not.
"Oh…" Jack looked around the room nervously. "She said that she didn't want the likes of me for her revenge, seein' as I'm getting' so ancient n all. She said she be wanting a replacement for her lost son, and therefore would take mine if he ever set foot on a ship near her sea. Now I wasn't too worried 'bout that, 'cause if she didn't want my own skin why should I care? And I don't think I even 'ave a son, really. But…"
Tia smirked, finding Jack's situation mildly comical, in the scheme of things. "Come now, Jack, tell Tia de trudth. We both be knowing you wouldn't care about any offspring o' yours, less he be of a very special woman to you."
Jack narrowed his kohl outlined eyes, but knew there was no sense lying to the voodoo priestess. There was one woman he still thought the world of, even though he hadn't seen her once since he watched her walk down the gang plank of the Pearl. He'd felt so sure at first that within the first year of living with the whelp in happily married misery she would hunt him down in Tortuga or some other port. But the years dripped away, leaving him a lonely man with only memories.
"Well? Can you tell me if I have a child with…" He hesitated to say her name, even that small thing still caused him a pang. Finally, he spit it out, cursing himself for being sentimental. "Elizabeth."
"And why don't you just go to Port Royal, and find dis ting out for yourself?"
Yes, why didn't he? Because when it came to this particular matter, he was a coward. What if he found her, and she really was happy with Will, with oodles of babies rolling around on the carpet? No, best stick with his own version of events, she being as unhappy as he in their separation.
"Because I'd rather not go without certainty of purpose."
Tia picked up her bones and sat before the symbols carved in the end of the table. She knew for all his games with women, he'd finally met one who cut him deep. Pity for Jack he lost her, but maybe a bit of karma. She tossed down the bones, carefully discerning where they landed, and how.
The silence seemed to ring in Jack's ears as thunder, and several eternities passed as he sat waiting for her answer. He wondered if she took so long just to spite him, to make him wait for the fateful answer. Finally, she looked up from her bones, mouth splitting in a black smile.
"Why Captain Sparrow, you be a father."
Jack's first thought? I need rum. Lots of rum.
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